Let me guide you.

 I am a very curious person and I have learnt over the years that the guides at historical places are very knowledgeable. Unless you ask them you will never what gems they may impart. My questions are always limited to just a few and only about things that I'm either interested in or when I don't understand what I'm looking at. This approach pays dividends for me and this clutch of tales from the big house were gathered in exactly this way on our recent visit to Petwork Park.

The image below is 'The Card Players' by Jan Matsys and it's at least 500 years old. I'm not entirely sure how to read what I'm seeing, but that bloke on the far left looks like a nefarious fellow and you wouldn't trust him any further than you could throw him. The room attendant remarked that the hands have been painted really well bar the old lady's one on the young man's shoulder. We speculated that she might have been added in later on and painted by someone other than the original artist. The prominent red hearts are also there to signify something....how I wish I could ask the artist what was in his mind when he created his piece.

Many of the paintings in the house are what I would term brown ones...stiff portraits or landscapes following the conventions of the day. In amongst the collection though are examples where the real face of the sitter looks back at you. The name of this lady hasn't come down to us, but the name of the artist Lavinia Fontana has. Yes you read that right a 17th century Italian female painter. In her day she was so highly regarded that she was invited to Rome to paint the pope. It was highly unusual, but possible for a woman to flourish in what was very much a man's world if they were either from the nobility or born into an artistic family. Fontana had the fortune to be in the latter category. Her husband was wholly supportive of her work, although I'm not quite sure how she found the time as she also had eleven children. Her fame did not last though as she might not be forgotten, but she has been omitted from the canon of well known male Renaissance artists. I'm back championing her cause. Other female names from this time to look out for are Sofonisba Anguissola, Artemsia Gentileschi and Elizabetta Sirani. 

I happened to spot this set of chairs set round the walls of the dark stairwell and zoomed over for a closer look. The guide, noting my enthusiasm, commented that people rarely give them a second look, but they are nationally important and a very rare survival. Apparently they are called Sgabello hall chairs.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that this room off the main entrance is currently undergoing a major refurbishment. Originally the walls were covered in portraits of the posh young totty of the day and the idea was to impress you from the minute you crossed the threshold. That was until 1820 when the then Duke of Egremont had a change of heart and decided to dedicate the wall space to the triumph of his sons in the Battle of Waterloo. What was one to do with the bevy of beauties....why just cut off their legs and shove 'em further up the wall😁Thankfully his instructions weren't carried out to the letter and instead their painted legs were folded up. Now the NT is busy unfolding the creased painting and restoring them to their rightful place. If you look carefully you can still just about see the diagonal crease mark left behind.

And there we have my own personal tour of Petworth Park without a groat being passed over for the official guide book...I've long since stopped buying such things as I never read them and they just become another item to clutter up my dwelling and collect dust😂

Arilx